Please keep plunderers out of our endangered forests for good

Please keep plunderers out of our endangered forests for good

An open letter to President Bio

Dear Mr. President,

When your government, on 9th April this year, announced the suspension of timber exportation with “immediate effect”, it felt like the start of a course correction for our nation. Sierra Leone has lost significant ancient forest cover over the past 30 years. Estimates of what is left are below 5%.

However, by public notice dated 21st May 2018, your government has set up a committee to review the ban on timber export, with one of its terms of reference being to “recommend an appropriate governance framework underpinned by transparency, accountability and reporting mechanism for the resumption of the timber trade and export.”

It is difficult to understand, Mr President, why your government is considering a resumption of timber exportation in the face of its deleterious effect on our environment. Our forests are critically endangered and I write to urge you to stay the course and choose long-term stewardship over short-term economic gain. Our forests must be protected.

I have just returned from a trip upcountry, where I provided legal advice to communities targeted for largescale mining and conducted training for over 70 paralegals on how to use our land and environmental protection laws to help communities secure their land and natural resources. In Port Loko I met some very worried farmers. They had ploughed their lands and planted in anticipation of the rains. They are still waiting. Groundnut and rice that were planted after the early rains in April have gone bad. Wells and rivers have dried up. There are similar stories in Bombali and Kenema. A national catastrophe of manifold dimensions is beginning to unfold.

Loss of forest cover has been linked to less rainfall. If we continue to cut down trees for export, we should also prepare for the mass exodus of our compatriots to other nations as climate refugees in search of water, food and arable land. The lack of rainfall this year portends a challenging future for our people. Some are already calling for humanitarian assistance in anticipation of widespread hunger and the outbreak of water-related diseases later this year.

No amount of money will equal the value of forests lost. Pursuing revenue at the expense of our forest is short-sighted and dangerous. There is no net positive in resuming timber exportation from our primary forests.

Across towns, villages and chiefdoms, people are becoming aware of the existential threat of our country’s vulnerability to climate change due largely to unrestrained exploitation of our natural resources. And they are taking action to both protect what’s left and regenerate a better environment for the future generation.

For example, the people in Gbo Chiefdom in the south are helping to conserve their forests by rejecting charcoal burning in the chiefdom. This act of stewardship is helping to preserve thousands of trees in that community.

Similarly, with help from my organisation, villages in Pakimasabong chiefdom in the north and Selenga chiefdom in the south have developed community by-laws to create protected zones, prevent logging along water catchments and regenerate deforested areas, as part of a community land protection programme. These communities understand that failure to take decisive action now will leave them with nothing for the future.

Resumption of timber exportation will give the impression that your government does not care about their efforts to protect their common heritage, our common heritage. Your government needs to back this exemplary demonstration of local leadership with decisive, supportive action at the national level. It would be a great disappointment if these efforts are scuppered by a resumption of timber exportation.

Mr. President, I would like to draw your attention to a national commitment your political party made before the March 2018 elections. At a “land, the environment and elections” conference in February 2018, your party and several others signed up to the “Wi Land Na Wi Fyuchɔ

Pledge” which contained commitments to protect our land and natural resources. In particular, your party agreed, if it won power, to “reverse the trend of national deforestation by prohibiting mining or largescale agricultural investments in forested areas and supporting community-based afforestation and conservation.” Your party also agreed to “prioritise alternative forms of land investments that are less harmful to the environment….”

You will agree, Mr. President, that resumption of timber exportation will be a desecration of these pre-election commitments. Your party’s word is your word and a person’s word is their bond.

Finally, your government could support responsible timber exportation, with no threat to our declining primary forests. Properly registered and environmentally-compliant timber companies could lease degraded land from communities on which to grow trees for export. A good example of this approach in practice is Miro Forestry Limited’s logging project in Mile 91, Tonkolili District. This Forest Stewardship Council-certified investment grows its own trees on land leased from communities. It is not worth doing business with any timber company that is unwilling to make this type of investment in our country.

Mr President, Sierra Leone is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The ancient forests are our last line of defence. It will be unwise to strip the nation of this protection and leave the people at the mercy of the elements.